The Chesterfield football history resource

Ken
Booker came to the club as an amateur in 1934, and signed professional forms shortly
after his eighteenth birthday, having represented Yorkshire Boys. An
elegant-looking defender, with a powerful long throw, he was a reserve for the
England Schools' team in their match against Wales at Saltergate in 1933.

Ken
was awarded a benefit of £750 in 1947, after having made only thirty-two League
appearances. The war, of course, accounted for this odd statistic, for Ken,
like so many others, lost seven seasons to the conflict. Few would have guessed
that he would have played very much at all, after his debut - a 0-5 demolition
at the hands of Luton Town. Informed opinion had it that Ken had actually
played a blinder against The Hatters' Hughie Billington, the scorer of four on that day.

After
five years in the Navy, Ken was at the heart of the Spireites' much-praised
defence during the club's successful post-war spell in Division Two. He stayed only one
season after the 1951 relegation before joining the small ex-Spireite colony at Shrewsbury Town. In
the days before footballers were supposed to be cynical, it is reckoned that
Ken would have gone further if he had adopted a harder edge to his play: as it
was, he was a gentleman on the field, and off it. Away from football, Ken found
employment as a wall tiler.